Chutes & Ladders—Allergan lures new CFO from Catalent

Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Angus Liu (email), and we will feature it here at the end of each week.

Allergan names Catalent veteran Matthew Walsh new CFO

AllerganMatthew Walsh was named CFO.

About four months after Tessa Hilado announced her retirement from Allergan’s CFO post, current Catalent CFO Matthew Walsh was named the successor. It was Hilado who managed the transformative deal to buy Allergan and the $40.5 billion sale of its generics business to Teva. Walsh has spent 10 years at the Catalent role and made his own achievements, including leading their transformation under private equity, a successful IPO and several M&As and divestures. Through a recent settlement, Allergan is paying Teva $700 million as an adjustment to the cash consideration from the generics buyout. FiercePharma

Arcturus’ ousted CEO doesn't plan to go without a fight

Arcturus Therapeutics
President and CEO Joseph Payne was terminated.

Soon after Joseph Payne was fired as president and CEO of Arcturus, the former helmsman is fighting back. In a letter filed with the SEC through attorneys, Payne said his ouster was pulled off by a four-member board committee that acted illegally, and therefore should be considered null and void. Payne, also a board member, said he and Pad Chivukula, a board member who’s also CSO and COO, were excluded from any talks about his ouster. In the SEC filing and a following response from Arcturus, both parties accused the other of not acting to the best interests of the company. The drama comes shortly after the JLABS graduate tied up with Janssen on RNA treatment for hepatitis B. FierceBiotech | SEC filing

Lilly diabetes executive jumps ship to MannKind

​MannKindDavid Kendall, M.D., became CMO.

David Kendall, M.D., most recently VP of global medical affairs with Lilly Diabetes, has decided to join MannKind as CMO, a job recently vacated by Raymond Urbanski, who shifted to oncology. MannKind is currently trying to establish its inhaled mealtime insulin Afrezza as the new standard of care for those living with diabetes. Sanofi previously signed a marketing deal with MannKind but later bailed out after a year of tepid sales. FiercePharma

>Robert A. Bradway, chairman and CEO of Amgen, was elected chairman of the PhRMA board of directors. Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt was named chairman-elect, and James Robinson, president of Astellas Americas became board treasurer. Release

>Bill Lundberg, M.D., stepped down as CSO of CRISPR Therapeutics, just as Celgene revealed it has sold some of its stake in the gene editing startup. FierceBiotech

> Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., returned to venture capital firm Atlas Ventures after leaving CRISPR biotech Intellia, which he helped found while at Atlas. FierceBiotech

>Sarah Noonberg, M.D., Ph.D., has decided to resign from her CMO position at Prothena. Release

> Kymera Therapeutics named Mark Nuttall, Ph.D., as its CBO; he was previously with Sanofi Genzyme and Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Release

>Kevin Gordon, who served as Quintiles' CFO from 2010 to 2015, joined Liquidia Technologies, which focuses on improving the performance of medicines by engineering drug particles, as president and CFO. Release

> Preclinical CRO Sinclair Research brought on former Covance and Eli Lilly executive G. Alex Wakefield as VP of research and operations. FierceCRO

> Cancer Genetics' president and CEO, Panna Sharma, will step down, and COO John (Jay) Roberts was named interim CEO. Release

> Polish oncology firm Selvita appointed Steffen Heeger, M.D., Ph.D., a recent Morphosys executive, to the role of CMO. Release